Author's Note: I'm so sorry that this is late! Please let me know how you like it! Also, I might update this story every two weeks. I have too many stories to try and keep up with. But I'm not giving up on this one! Enjoy!

Chapter 5

The Inter-High preliminaries were close. We all were working hard. Keishin and I worked the boys even harder. We did blocks, serves, receives and spikes. There was one thing that was added: my serves. Since I could control my strength and aim the ball, the boys thought it would be good practice before going up against Oikawa.

I frowned at the mention of the setter and simply waved off any questions. If my serves were gonna help the boys, then I would gladly do it. Although, I knew that I would have to tell them the extent of my injuries eventually. The deserved to know about it, but a part of me was scared that they would treat me like glass if they found out. But I knew that they would find out. I just didn't know how soon it was.

One morning, I was getting up for morning practice, when I fell to the floor in pain. My right foot felt like it was on fire again. I sat on the floor of my bedroom hissing in pain, trying to hold back from screaming, just waiting for it to stop.

Apparently, my cousin heard me fall because my door opened without me knowing. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to see the blurry image of my cousin's concerned eyes. "Is it your foot again?" he asked. I only nodded as a few tears fell. "Hold on. I'll be right back."

He left only to come back a few seconds later with a glass of water in one hand and a pill in the other. I took the pill and washed it down with the water. When I was first injured, I was in immense pain. I was prescribed pain pills in order to keep it manageable. Due to most of my injuries being healed, my doctor told me only to take a pain pill if I really needed it. I hadn't needed to use them in a while though. "Thank you."

Keishin nodded while taking back the glass. "Skip morning practice," he told me. "I'll tell the boys you aren't feeling well, but you should still go to school. The doctor said you should still try to work through the pain."

Nodding to him, he left so I could get ready. It was slow trying to get dressed when my foot still stung. I had a very high pain tolerance, so the pain pills only eased the pain down a little, not the whole way. My last doctor wanted to give me stronger meds, but I refused to take them. I didn't want to end up relying on them to function.

I limped down the stairs for breakfast and my aunt helped me get to my seat. It was times like this that I had to swallow my pride and let others help me. After eating all of my food, I grabbed my bento lunch that was prepared for me and did my best to limp to school.

I managed to make it to my class on time, even though everyone stared at me. Because of the rumors, no one but Nishinoya would talk to me, but this would just spark new rumors. Not that I really cared what others thought about me. I sat down in my seat slowly to avoid moving my foot too much. Suddenly, my name was being called loudly. I looked over to see Nishinoya staring at me like I was a ghost.

"Kaneko-chan!" he shouted again as he ran to my side. "Are you alright?! Coach said that you weren't feeling well this morning!"

I motioned for him to lower his voice with a grimace at his shouting. "I'm fine Nishinoya. I probably won't be at afternoon practice either. I just kinda wanna go home and rest today."

Nishinoya looked shocked at me, but the bell sounding made him go to his seat. The whole school day, I practically ignored Nishinoya. Even when Tanaka came to get us for lunch, I just waved them off. Nishinoya grabbed Tanaka and dragged him from the classroom, despite his protests. I just put my headphone in and ate my food while listening to my music.

When the bell sounded, signifying the end of school, Nishinoya practically ran from the classroom without a backwards glance. I felt a little guilty for not telling him why I wouldn't be at practice, but I really did just want to rest today. Because I hadn't moved from my seat much today, my foot actually felt a little better, so my limp wasn't as noticeable. I still walked slowly though, knowing from experience not to overdo it. As soon as I made my way out of the building, Kiyoko found me.

"Why aren't you coming to practice?" she demanded, her usually soft voice having a hard edge to it. I blinked at her tone, wondering how she knew that. It seemed as though she ready my mind though. "Nishinoya came to tell all the third years what was going on and said that you were acting strange."

At my silence, she pressed on. "We're friends, right Kaneko-chan?"

"Of course, we are," I answered immediately.

"Then why won't you let us help you?" she countered. "We were all worried when you didn't show up for practice. We just want to help you."

I looked at the ground, unable to look her in the eye. "I don't want the boys to treat me like glass. Nekoma knew better than that, and I'm finally at a good place now. I don't want to be seen as anything that could break at any moment.

"Then tell them that," she instructed with such confidence that I looked up at her. "Tell the boys not to see you that way, but I don't think that they will. Come to practice and talk to us. We all want you there."

I slowly thought through what she said and what I knew of the boys. She made a good point. If I asked them not to do something, then they wouldn't. I hadn't meant to worry anyone, but it seems that I did that anyway. It was probably time that I told them about what happened. Keishin had asked me to tell Takeda about it, that way he knew what was going on. So maybe it was time to let the boys know too.

I nodded to her, and she nodded back. She led the way slowly so that I could keep up, which I greatly appreciated. Before we entered the gym, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Kiyoko waited for me, and we walked in together once I was calm.

Nishinoya and Tanaka were the first to notice Kiyoko but when they saw me, their eyes widened. "Kaneko-chan!" they both shouted, which caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look over.

Nishinoya and Tanaka were quick to rush over, but they were pulled back by Ennoshita while the third years came over. "How are you feeling Kaneko-chan?" Daichi asked in concern. "We were worried when you didn't show up this morning."

I smiled lightly at him. "I'm sorry that I worried everyone. It was just something with one of my past injuries. I promise that I'll be just fine."

Suga stepped forward looking particularly worried about what I said. "I thought that you said your injuries weren't anything to worry about."

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. They all looked confused as I walked over to the wall and sat down. I always wore leggings underneath my skirt, so it didn't bother me. Glancing over at my cousin briefly, I noticed that he sent me a slight nod. I took another deep breath before taking off my right shoe and peeled off my sock.

Some of the boys gasped at seeing my foot. To be honest, it looked pretty gross. I had second-degree burn scars coming from the bottom of my foot to the top and around my ankle.

"The accident that I was in last fall, a drunk driver hit my father's car," I began. "Both my foot and my right shoulder got burned pretty bad. I ended up with a lot of glass in my right leg as well and some of it has to be surgically removed. My left leg had been broken and was in a cast until right before I came here. All in all, I was told that I wouldn't be able to play again.

"Ever since I started my recovery, my progress has been slow, but I haven't had much residual pain. However, this morning was one of those times. My foot felt like it was on fire again and when that happens, I'm not really able to move that much. So, now you know about what happened."

It was silent for a moment, and I was staring at my foot, unable to look at them. Movement in front of me had me looking up at Daichi concerned eyes. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"I didn't want you all to treat me like glass, like I would break," I replied. "Nekoma knew me before the accident, so they knew not to see me like that. But I've learned to trust you, so I didn't want you to see me that way."

"We don't see you like that," Suga insisted, and I looked at him. He smiled at me reassuringly. "For you to have gone through all of that, it just means that you're strong. And you're even stronger because of it."

I smiled at him for understanding. I guess that my fears were unfounded with these boys. I looked at everyone and they were all smiling, other than Nishinoya and Tanaka who were crying. The only one that was not was Tsukishima. The blonde first year was one that I had trouble reading. As times it would seem like he was into the game, but at other times, it seemed like he could care less. But I had a good feeling that he would get better at that.

"So, is your foot okay now?" Asahi inquired making me look at him. "Do you need to rest more?"

I smiled reassuringly at him. "I didn't really move it much today, so it's feeling better, but I don't think that I'll be able to do practice with you boys. I called my doctor this morning and he suggested that I should be resting for a few days."

"You should at least come in and watch," Daichi suggested. "We could at least use your direction even if you can't participate."

I smiled and nodded to him. At that moment, Keishin decided to intervene by clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "Well, you need to get back to practice anyway," he said.

"Go," I told them when they hesitated. "I'll be fine right here. You all need to be ready for Inter-High."

They all smiled and went back to practice, a new determination in their steps. It made me glad that I had them in my life.

*Cat Among Crows*

Over the next few days, I watched practice from the sidelines, giving out pointers that they needed. It was honestly starting to get on my nerves. I wanted to get out on the court and play, even if it was only practice. I had called Tetsu that first night and told him what happened along with their reactions. He was glad that they weren't treating me as though I was breakable.

We had a very busy day, and all of the boys were resting afterwards. I had just gotten the most recent volleyball monthly and was going through it. I stopped on a picture of Shiratorizawa's Ushiwaka. It was a huge picture of him that recognized him and two others as the top three most-noticed students.

Tanaka and Nishinoya happened to look over my shoulder to see the picture. "That's amazing," Nishinoya commented in awe. "The picture's huge."

"What?" Asahi asked as he walked up. I moved the magazine so he could see, and he gasped when he saw it.

Hinata and Kageyama both walked up and asked what was going on. I held up the magazine for him to take while explaining as he looked. "Shiratorizawa's Ushiwaka is among the three most-noticed high schoolers in the whole country."

"Shiratorizawa!" Hinata exclaimed. "That's where Kageyama couldn't get in." Kageyama told him to shut up and I giggled a little bit. Hinata then looked t the rest of us. "Who's Ushiwaka?"

"You don't know?" Tanaka asked in disbelief.

"That's because you're only a fan of the Little Giant," Suga jumped in with a teasing smile.

"Let me tell you about Ushiwaka," Tanaka said pointing to the magazine. "He's unmistakably the number-one ace of our prefecture: Ushijima Wakatoshi."

"Hmm," Daichi hummed, coming to stand next to Hinata. "He definitely has 'ace' written all over him."

Then everyone turned to Asahi who freaked out a little at all of the eyes on him. Suga and Tanaka then started to tease Kageyama over his choice of schools. It was Hinata that brought it all back. "If we don't defeat him, we can't play against Nekoma."

"Hey, hey," Keishin said, as he walked up to us. Everyone stood up and Tanaka and Nishinoya both helped me up. I smiled at them both as Keishin continued. "Shiratorizawa isn't the only formidable opponent."

"Would that be last year's best four?"

"Yes, but there are other formidable opponents this year," my cousin explained, taking out a stack of papers. "There's Wakutani Minami, which has superior defense and coordination. Date Tech is also known as the Iron Wall, which says it all. That team has the highest blocking rate in the country. If I recall, we lost to Date Tech 2-0 in the prefectural tournament this past March. I hear there's a second year named Aone who is particularly dangerous.

"Date Tech is as strong as the other best four teams, but they lost their third-round match against the eventual champions, Shiratorizawa, and only made the best sixteen. That's why they weren't seeded this year. In other words, depending on the matchups, we might or might not play against them in the first round. And the next one… Oh, yeah. I heard that we recently had a practice match against them.

"The team's top attacker is their setter and of course he's also a supreme setter. Their team's ranks include perhaps the best all-around player in the prefecture. That would be Oikawa Toru at Aoba Johsai."

I frowned at the name of the setter, and I noticed that a few of the boys were also angry at the name. I really wasn't surprised. Oikawa tended to get under people's skin.

"They were in last years best four," Keishin continued. "Last, but not least. The defending champions, Shiratorizawa, and their super-ace Ushijima Wakatoshi. That about sums it up. I'll save the details for later."

Daichi and Suga both looked at Keishin oddly and he called them out for thinking something disrespectful. They shook their heads and Keishin didn't press any more. I decided to get them back on track.

"While those may be the top four contenders this year," I told them. "You can't always look up. I've learned that if all you do is look up instead of straight ahead, you could lose your footing. There's no team that enters a tournament to lose. They all enter to win."

"She's right," my cousin confirmed. "While we frantically train, others will also be frantically training. Weak or strong, they're all aiming to win. Don't forget that. And don't let them call us 'flightless crows' ever again."

The boys all responded determinedly. That was went the door opened suddenly and Takeda entered after taking off his shoes. "I'm glad you're all still here," he said. "Sorry I'm late. The meeting went long. However, here it is." He held out a piece of paper with brackets on it. "The matchups for the Inter-High preliminaries."

The boys all started to look over the list and began to discuss everyone that was in our block. I sighed at them. "Hey!" I called to get their attention. "Don't forget what I just said."

"We know," Daichi agreed. "The first-round match, I promise we'll win it."

*Cat Among Crows*

The next day, my doctor allowed me to join in again. The boys were getting better but it felt good to join in again. Suga came up to me on one of our breaks with a paper in his hand. "Hey Kaneko-chan," he greeted, as he handed me the paper. "I gave these to the first years. My signals. I'm not as accurate as Kageyama, so I use signals to say what I doing next."

I smiled as I looked the paper over. "I understand giving them to the first years, but why are you giving them to me?"

Suga laughed at me. "Well, if you're gonna play with us, you should know how to use these."

I blinked at him before a smile made it's way to my lips. It was then that my cousin called out to me. "Kaneko! Come here!"

"Just a minute!" I then turned to Suga. "Thank you Suga. I'll be sure to memorize them."

I ran over to see what he wanted, and he asked me to help with learning to do a backrow attack. Hinata and Kageyama were unsure, but Asahi was determined. I was smiling at his determination. It was good to see him be more passionate about it. I worked with Kageyama to find the right height for spiking and a way to set it to him. We worked on that till the end of practice.

Before cleaning up, I suggested one more spiking drill, but to switch it up. Hinata with Suga and Asahi with Kageyama. I was pleased to see Hinata's quick attacks with Suga were coming along well. Kageyama got rather excited about whether his set was okay for Asahi or not.

After cleaning the gym, Daichi offered to buy meat buns for everyone at the shop. I spoke mainly to Asahi on how I was able to do the spin spike. He had been very eager to try and learn it. As the boys all ate their buns, I said goodnight to them before going inside the connected house and to my room.

*Cat Among Crows*

Over the days leaning up to Inter-High, we all worked on polishing different attacks. Hinata was still learning the signals, but he was getting better, especially at hitting them. Kayeyama, of course, already memorized them all. Sometimes I wonder if that boy thought about anything else besides volleyball.

There was a pep rally for all of the sports clubs at the school. I had to stand up there with the boys when they went up. There were some confused looks from some people, but no one really said anything.

Soon, before we knew it, it was the night before Inter-High. "Go home and go to sleep early tonight," my cousin was telling the boys after practice.

As Daichi was about to end the meeting, Takeda stopped him. "Just a second. One more thing. Shimizu-san?"

Everyone turned to Kiyoko, who looked very nervous. "I'm not good at cheering, but…" she trailed off as she walked over to the ladder that lead to the next floor.

She and Takeda went up and I smiled realizing what it was. Every team that I know of had a banner stating their team moto. Nekoma's only said Connect because that was what they aimed to do. When they threw it over the side of the railing, the black banner said Fly. I thought it was very appropriate for these crow.

The boys were amazed by what they were seeing. "I didn't know we had that," Suga said in astonishment.

"I found it while cleaning, so I washed it," Kiyoko explained.

As expected, both Nishinoya and Tanaka got fired up right away. However, Daichi stopped them both when Kiyoko wasn't done speaking. "Do…Do your best," she said with a wide blush.

She bowed quickly before running off while I noticed the third and second years were all stunned silent. They all began to cry all at once. It was almost funny to see, even Daichi was crying. Tanaka and Nishinoya were surprisingly silent. Then Daichi called out. "We're going to win the first round for sure!"

They all began to cry again and cheering. I walked over to Kiyoko and put a hand on her shoulder. "You may not be good at cheering, but you do know exactly what to say."

Kiyoko just blushed more, and I giggled at her. I then turned to the boys and let out a loud whistle to get their attention. "While I'm glad that you all are fired up, you all need sleep if you're gonna use that energy. Now, clean up and go home."

"Yeah!" they all cheered.